Hundreds of disabled students and residents of four Pattaya communities demanded city officials inform them when a long-delayed wheelchair-accessible pedestrian bridge over Sukhumvit Road will be finished.
The students, teachers and staff from the Redemptorist School for Persons with Disabilities and locals from four communities benefitting from the proposed overpass in front of Pattaya City School 5 presented a petition to mayoral secretary Phumpipat Kamolnart in front of the Pattaya Pawnshop May 27.
The pawnshop has been at the center of the latest delay to the multimillion-baht project to build a new bridge equipped with elevators over the busy highway.
Pattaya Money Service in March threatened to file a lawsuit to block the project, claiming the bridge will allow thieves to stake out the pawnshop it operates, putting customers with cash or valuables in their pockets at risk. In addition, there are several banks in the area that could be cased for victims by robbers hanging out on the bridge, the company asserted.
The lawsuit threat is only the latest of many delays to plague the project first proposed in 2011.
Redemptorist School official Samrith Charpirom demanded an update from Pattaya officials on the progress of the project and a projected completion date.
Phumpipat had no answers for the group, only acknowledging their request and promising to take it to Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome.
“People want Pattaya to be sympathetic to the disabled under the care of Father Ray Foundation and other disabled people living in Pattaya who need to use the overpass to cross Sukhumvit Road. If there is no lift, it would directly affect going up and down, especially the disabled using wheelchairs who won’t be able to use the overpass,” Samrith said.
